eni FIM Superbike World Championship Race One Results From Portimao

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Portimao (Portugal), Sunday 6 July 2014 - An enthralling 20 lap
race 1 saw Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) emerge victorious at a cloudy and
overcast Portimao to claim his 7th win of the season and the 21st
of his WSBK career.

At the start it was Pata Honda’s Jonathan Rea
that took the holeshot, leading for the opening three laps before Sykes and
Marco Melandri (Aprilia Racing Team) overtook him into turn one at the start of
lap four.

By half distance the constant swapping of
positions had allowed reigning champion Sykes to stretch his lead to 3 seconds,
before seconds later the white flag was waved to indicate that rain was
beginning to fall.

Behind the leader five riders that included
Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team), Chaz Davies (Ducati Superbike Team), and
Sylvain Guintoli, Leon Haslam on the second of the Pata Honda’s slowly began to
close the gap, giving the fans a six rider group battling for the podium
places.

Leon Haslam collided with Chaz Davies, both
riders able to remount with Davies later retiring. Haslam eventually finished
11th.

At the front Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing
Team) had elevated himself to 2nd and began to quickly reduce the
gap to Sykes before he responded to retain a lead of 2 seconds until the flag.
Guintoli made his return to the podium in 2nd
ahead of compatriot Baz, with Marco Melandri 4th.

Jonathan Rea faded to a lonely 5th
ahead of Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) who passed Ducati’s Davide
Giugliano and his team mate Eugene Laverty on the final lap to finish 6th.

Sylvain Barrier (BMW Motorrad Italia Superbike
Team) and David Salom (Kawasaki Racing Team) were never more than 0.1s apart
for the entire race with Salom, eventually coming out on top by 0.014s on the
line to claim the EVO honours.